BUT PADRES BATTERY IS A BIT LOW
SPRING IS IN THE AIR

Spring training at a glance

Where: Peoria Sports Complex, Peoria, Ariz. The complex is to the southeast of the Route 101-Bell Road interchange.

Getting there: Flights to Phoenix are relatively inexpensive, but rental car costs can be very pricey. By car, it’s 5½-6 hours from San Diego to Peoria.

Lodging: There are eight hotels within a mile of the Peoria Sports Complex. Rates typically begin around $60, but double in some cases once exhibition games are being played.

Today: Pitchers and catchers report

Friday: Full squad reports

Feb. 22: Charity game against Mariners, 12:05 p.m.

March 28: Final game of Cactus League schedule in Arizona, vs. Indians, 12:05 p.m.

The Padres find themselves victims of an assault on their battery.

The baseball team’s pitchers and catchers report to spring training camp today in Peoria, Ariz., and this is the area in which their obvious problems lie, their battery, or potential batteries, meaning pitchers and catchers.

In that, other than re-signing a bunch of their own people, they did nothing during the offseason, these are the dicey positions. With potential starters Cory Luebke and Joe Wieland rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and not due back until summer, there is no true No. 1 (Clayton Richard and Edinson Volquez being the closest things), and the top five is far from set.

But doing most of the damage is Yasmani Grandal, who after coming on strong at the end of the year seemed set to be the team’s starting catcher for years. But he got himself busted for taking PEDs and will miss the first 50 games of the season, and that’s if the organization takes him back at all, which it shouldn’t because he absolutely screwed this team. He leaves many questions unanswered.

Right now, it doesn’t matter, because he’s not going to be playing. So it’s up to former starter Nick Hundley and backup John Baker to share catching duties. That would be fine, except Hundley, one of the good guys who had shown so much promise, fell way off his game in 2012, was sent to the minors and eventually had knee surgery. It was just an awful year for him.

“Nothing’s given to you,” Hundley says. “I’m healthy; I feel great. A lot of things went down last year. I’ve broken down my swing. Physically, I know the knee had something to do with it. Mechanically, things did not go well. But I’ve changed a lot of things in my preparation. I’m not lifting as much. I was trying to be a weight lifter instead of a baseball player.”

It’s basically on Hundley’s shoulders, if not for the first few months, possibly for the entire season. He is the kind of guy you root for.

“There is no pressure,” he says. “I have one day to worry about, and that’s today. All I care about is today.”

We’re going to know right away, because the obvious key to the Padres’ season is on the mound and 60 feet, 6 inches away, behind the plate. If Hundley can’t rebound and the rotation can’t hang on early, this season could be longer than Yao Ming’s inseam.